


sharing evenings (cool and quiet)

by alittlebitoftheuniverse



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Episode: Dalen's Closet, Trauma, i honestly don't know how else to tag this just know that dalen's closet fucked me up, just now got around to adding it here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-11-02 09:04:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20693669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlebitoftheuniverse/pseuds/alittlebitoftheuniverse
Summary: Post-wedding snuggles with Vesper, both Percy and Vex just glad to be alive and be together.





	sharing evenings (cool and quiet)

They don’t stay for the reception. One look, both pairs of eyes more than a little tired and battleworn, is all it takes, and they’re excusing themselves from the table. Scanlan, Pike, and Grog all start whistling at them as they get out of their chairs. Keyleth doesn’t even notice, she’s three glasses of wine down and is talking to Derrig, gesturing wildly with her arms as he looks vaguely alarmed. Percy catches his eye and waves to him, and he huffs out a sigh and takes Keyleth’s glass away when she isn’t looking.

They walk back to their hotel room in silence, holding hands, gripping perhaps a little more tightly than necessary though neither of them complains. Vex abandons her heels at one point and Percy carries them for her, and it makes her smile. They don’t speak until they’re safely in their room, and Vex would be lying if she says she didn’t triple check the lock on the door before she lets herself breathe.

When she turns, Percy is bent over the crib, murmuring softly to Vesper, though she can’t hear what he’s saying. She approaches him slowly, smiling. “Could you help me out of this dress, darling?” she asks, resting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s a bit waterlogged.”

Percy straightens up, smiling softly. “Of course, my love.” He moves behind her, hands working the laces deftly until the dress slips down her waist and she can step out of it. He watches as she undresses down to her shift, face soft. Almost reverent, she’d call it, and the thought makes her blush in spite of her exhaustion.

Almost as if he reads her mind, Percy moves closer at that moment, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. His hands don’t wander anywhere else, just up into her hair, which has turned stiff and salty and makes them both grimace.

“Why don’t I go run a bath?” Percy suggests, taking a step back, and she can read the expression on his face. He’s pretending the idea of getting back in the water doesn’t make him nervous. It’s the same expression she can imagine is on her own face.

“We do need a bath before we sleep,” she agrees, swallowing hard, gaze flickering down to Vesper. She’s woken up, face splitting into a big smile when she sees Vex’s face. The sight warms Vex right to her toes. “I’ll feed her while you do that?”

“Perfect,” Percy murmurs, pressing a gentle kiss to her shoulder before slipping away. Vex scoops her daughter up gently, chuckling at the already insistent patting on her chest.

“That won’t make the milk come out faster, you know,” she tells her as she sits in the armchair by the crib. She likes this part, holding Vesper close against her, smelling of milk and sleep and the scent that was just…baby. It makes her smile every time, even when Vesper is squawking at three in the morning because she’s hungry.

“How’s that, little love?” she murmurs, stroking a black curl back from Vesper’s face. “It’s okay, Mama’s got you. She came back, didn’t she? I promised you we’d have fun after the wedding, hm?”

Vesper burbles and milk drips down her chin as she pulls back, Vex laughing as she wipes it away, and hears Percy’s chuckle from the doorway. He’s watching her, face still soft, tears rolling silently down his cheeks even as he smiles.

“I don’t know if she wants us to go,” Vex admits. “She doesn’t seem very sleepy.”

“She doesn’t,” Percy hums, moving over and cradling Vesper in his arms. “Hello, my sweet,” he smiles at her. “Listen. It’s been a very very long day for mama and papa. Could you be so sweet and be sleepy again? You can even sleep in the big bed tonight.”

Vesper squeals, kicking her feet excitedly, and Percy sighs, giving Vex a weary smile. “Go get in the water while it’s still warm, love,” he offers. “I’ll negotiate with this one, maybe she’ll think it’s so boring she’ll fall asleep again.”

Vex can’t help laughing at that, tickling Vesper’s foot gently as she heads into the bathroom, smile widening as she sees the bath Percy’s drawn to them, the smell of her favorite bath oils wafting from the water. She’s put a little more at ease just from that.

It still takes a long moment and a deep breath before she makes herself step into the tub, sitting down, reminding herself that the water only came to her chest, that her head was still well above water. She raises her hands to glide through the water, letting the action soothe her until she grits her teeth, forcing herself to plunge her head under the water.

It’s not so bad, she tells herself firmly. She likes to swim. She tries to remember other times, splashing in a river with Trinket early in the morning, her trying to get clean and him more determined to catch one of the fish wriggling downstream. Swimming with Vax as children in the pond near Byroden, her leaping onto him to shove him under the water. She is not afraid of the water. She’s not.

Because her ears are underwater, she misses Percy’s panicked cry when he comes into the room. She doesn’t miss his hand wrapping around her arm, grip like iron, hauling her back up, spluttering and gasping.

“Percy!” she protests, parting her soaked curtain of hair to look up at him. “I was fine!”

Percy looks abashed, pale, hands trembling a little. “Shit, shit, I’m sorry! I just saw you under the water…”

And now she’s the one feeling guilty, for frightening him so much, for not thinking. She sighs heavily, reaching out for him. “Come get in, darling,” she murmurs, gently as she can. “The water’s fine.”

Percy sheds the last of his ocean-stiff clothes, and she moves forward so he can sit behind her and she can lean back against his chest. He buries his face in her hair immediately, drawing in a shaky breath.

“I’m so sorry,” he mumbles, holding her tight. “I’m sorry I couldn’t…”

“Percy, no,” she cuts him off, lifting her head so he has to look at her. “None of what happened today was your fault, don’t think that. None of this shit is your fault.”

Percy tries to smile, but it’s lopsided and wrong, and his hand is still shaking when he reaches up to stroke her hair back from her face and cup her cheek. “I just…you were gone…”

Vex leans up, pressing her lips lightly to his, leaving their foreheads pressed together. “I’m here,” she promises. “It’s going to take a lot more than Sylas fucking Briarwood to get rid of me, darling, you know that.”

Percy does smile at that, and then he’s kissing her again, and then they’re crying softly against each other, clinging on as tightly as they can, as though someone is going to rip them apart again.

The bath water is cold by the time they’re finished and stumble back out of the tub, almost too tired and wrung out to dry themselves off. They crawl into the bed on either side of Vesper, who’s sleeping stretched out in the way she does, arms stretched over her head, and Percy smiles tiredly and moves them back down.

“So they don’t fall asleep on her,” he mumbles around a yawn. Vex laughs a little, reaching over to take his hand, looking at him over their daughter’s head. There is more, so much more to work through, to talk about, but there will be time for that later. For right now, all she wants to do is lie next to him and keep Vesper safe between them.

And maybe sleep for a week. A week-long nap sounds like something she could get behind.


End file.
